De Blasio says Move NY plan would take a toll on Brooklyn and Queens residents

“No plan that I’ve seen has responded to the fact that those 5 million New Yorkers will be paying for something they did not have to pay for in the past,” the mayor said. (Jefferson Siegel/POOL)

Nothing's fair in tolls and cars.

Mayor de Blasio insisted it wouldn't be fair to add any tolls to East River bridges as part of a popular congestion pricing proposal — even as he allowed that the current system of tolling is already unfair to other boroughs.

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Move NY, a plan put forward four years ago and gaining renewed attention as the subways suffer for cash, would add tolls on the spans between Queens and Brooklyn and Manhattan — which enjoy numerous subway connections to one another — while reducing them on the seven bridges that already have MTA tolls, some of which serve transit-starved areas of the outerboroughs.

"My point is simply this: you've got two boroughs that have not had tolls on those bridges since those bridges have existed. They between them are almost 5 million New Yorkers, and no plan that I've seen has responded to the fact that those 5 million New Yorkers will be paying for something they did not have to pay for in the past," the mayor said.

Under the plan, the Manhattan Bridge would become a toll bridge. (Melpomenem/Getty Images/iStockphoto)

But currently, other boroughs are bearing the brunt of MTA tolls — including Staten Island, whose only span to another borough, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, does carry a toll. While its residents take a hit to the EZ-Pass to fund the MTA, Staten Island has a single standalone railway and no subway line, let alone one connecting it to Manhattan or Brooklyn.

"I think there's real equity questions for sure for Staten Island, but I think the best way to address it is to look at the whole piece. If we're going to make adjustments it should be done in a fair manner," he said. "I would prefer to discuss this as a whole and to date I have not seen a plan that addresses the whole."

Many transit activists would argue Move NY does just that — and that it would ease the burden on commuters in the far reaches of Queens and the Bronx whose bridges also carry the MTA toll. The plan is also aimed at reducing driving, particularly into the jam-packed Midtown area — to ease traffic and better the environment.

But Hizzoner, who has called congestion pricing regressive, said rich people won't change their habits to avoid the tolls, while lower income people will.

"How are equity questions going to be addressed about hardship for people, for example if you're a low-income person you have to go to a hospital in Manhattan, what is going to be done in your case?" he asked of those who would use East River spans.

That might seem to rich to Staten Islanders — who live in the city's only borough without a public hospital and would have to drive over the Verrazano to Brooklyn to reach the nearest one.

Asked about the mayor’s hospital example, Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito said she supported congestion pricing. (Gregg Vigliotti/For New York Daily News)

Asked about the mayor's hospital example, Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito said she supported congestion pricing.

"The mayor has his position. I'm very clear," she said. "I've been a very strong supporter of congestion pricing from its original iteration."

She said there are ways to make it "fair and just," including investing money into boosting transit in two-fare zones where people have to rely on cars.

"The mayor's comments are puzzling given the numerous ways the Move NY Fair Plan is, in fact, highly progressive, especially with its emphasis on bringing substantial benefits to outer borough residents, drivers and low-income families," Move NY campaign director Alex Matthiessen said. "We point to today's endorsement of the Move NY plan by Speaker Mark-Viverito, a true champion of progressive causes, as further evidence that ours is a plan that will do right by New Yorkers."

While de Blasio argued the tolls would hit low-income people hard, 55% percent of city residents do not own cars, and those who do have cars have a higher than the median income, according to a study from the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.